Melonite barrel treatment

Since I think it is resolved that breakin is a requirement for preparation, so what about the relative advantages/disadvantages of using fire-lappping for the primary method of breakin? Therenis some support among competative shooters for fire-lapping (David Tubb)

What about following-up fire-lapping with some form of electropolishing (blackstar?)

Just trying to figure out what is the very B E S T way to get that bore as smooth as POSSIBLE so it will be ready for the permanence that the nitro-carburizing brings?

Since I think it is resolved that breakin is a requirement for preparation, so what about the relative advantages/disadvantages of using fire-lappping for the primary method of breakin? Therenis some support among competative shooters for fire-lapping (David Tubb)

What about following-up fire-lapping with some form of electropolishing (blackstar?)

Just trying to figure out what is the very B E S T way to get that bore as smooth as POSSIBLE so it will be ready for the permanence that the nitro-carburizing brings?

Thanks for the lively discussion! I've learned a whole lot!

I don't have any experience with fire lapping but have heard both good and bad. My gut feeling is, if you have a good quality lapped barrel, I don't personally like the sound of firing "grit" down it. That said, here is what I did with mine. You can check more on this forum under (new 30/375 wildcat). I have a Krieger barrel on my new build which was shooting some sub .1 moa groups at 100 yards before I sent it in for melonite. I shot it far more than I intended before shipping it off (long story) but I cleaned it SQUEAKY clean with bore tech eliminator and then a good scrubbing with Iosso bore paste. Lastly, I ran a couple of patches with rubbing alcohol. I chrono'd it with three selected brass numbered 1-3 and recorded everything pertinent as far as temp, sun angle etc. When I got the barrel back, I was surprised how much brownish residue that there was to clean out before firing. I fired the three rounds again duplicating as much as possible the first test. The only difference was about 30 degrees warmer temp, which I would rather not have had, but came up with about a 25-30' increase in velocity. I was using H1000 so I don't believe there should be that much difference due to temp sensity based on past experience. I had a temporary scare as my groups had opened to about 1 moa but I soon discovered that my base mount was loose. I tightened everything down and only had two rounds left which went into one hole. I haven't had time to shoot since but am going to wait for some 50 degree weather to repeat the chrono test. I had fired about thirty rounds thru it after the treatment and had also fire formed another 50 brass, so I cleaned it using my usual technique. I will say that cleanup is now VERY easy. Copper does not seem to accumulate much at all and comes right out with a couple of patches......Rich

Thanks for sharing your experience Rich! I'm new hhere and I can already tel I'm dealing with shootists here not juveniles that have to turn everything into a political discussion!

I'm glad you mentioned the IOSSO BORE PASTE, someone had mentioned IOSSO and was not familiar with their products and I wanted to ask about the bore paste but forgot to.

I was wondering about the grit issue as you mentioned because it occured to me that one could easily over do the coaser grit on a fine barrel t hat's why I asked the question the way I did. I've been hand sharpenig knives for years and have seen much blade geometry altered with too coarse a stone and have made some realy fine edges with fine stones but its WORK!

Welcome to the forum and good luck. I'm not saying that the fire lapping is no good, I just don't know so I error on the side of being more conservative. IOSSO is a very good product and is "so" fine that you would wear your arm out long before you did any harm to your barrel. My Krieger barrel was very smooth after a few rounds as they did a good job of lapping............Rich

Yup, I read through the whole thread and saw that Skyking had a couple barrels done recently (at time of thread) but was wonder if others also had some done and if they had put many rounds through the tubes. I researched this quite a bit a while back and it seemed to good to be true. Have heard a lot of good reports and some mediocre reports.

Overall, sounds like it's worth a try as long as there are no horror stories.

FWIW, On break-in, I also spoke with the Benchmark guys and they emphasized minimal rounds down the tube for break-in, especially for overbores.
they had some sort of lapping process to prep the barrel for the treatment.